Currently available avionics radios (ex.—Line Replaceable Units (LRUs)) implemented on aircraft are located in an avionics bay of the aircraft. Further, these currently available LRUs are connected to antennas via Radio Frequency (RF) coaxial cable. Functions are typically federated, such that each waveform (ex.—Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS)) has a dedicated LRU and a dedicated antenna, said dedicated antenna being connected to the dedicated LRU via corresponding RF coax line(s). Engineers have spent considerable time and effort to reduce the weight of the individual LRUs of currently available avionics systems, said LRUs being implemented in the avionics bay of an aircraft. Further, in currently available avionics systems, substantial loss must also be overcome in the RF coax (ex.—3 decibels (dB) is typically budgeted for), meaning that twice as much power may be required to be generated at the LRU level than what is transmitted at the antenna(s). Still further, in currently available avionics systems, the LRU receive path may also be degraded.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an avionics system which obviates the above-referenced problems associated with currently available avionics systems.